Mobile Advertising Trends and the future of Online Advertising

As an Internet marketer and if you are used to pick ‘Desktops and laptops’ as your campaign target devices, think again! The time has changed and mobile advertising is the key driver to an online campaign success today as against just another channel two years back. Similarly, if you are a publisher or blogger, enabling mobile ads (e.g. via mobile support for your website) will boost your ad income many folds and gives you the opportunity to play around with numerous mobile ad networks than just the biggies.

I have several strong reasons to believe that online advertising will slowly become mobile advertising or at least converge towards it to a greater extent. In this post let me explain how a number of changing parameters with respect to technology, our lifestyle and work needs will help mobile campaigns and mobile ads more than anything else.

Mobile Advertising Trends to watch out for

#1 More and more mobile devices and why? In the past, your computing, web browsing, office work and all kinds of information worker job etc used to happen only on personal computers – primarily desktops. Then a part of that became ‘mobile’ via laptops but still people like office workers and developers used desktops. However, the laptops themselves became so powerful that even more work (probably except clerical job) could be carried out on laptops.

The invent of powerful mobile devices and tablet PCs meant that, the primary job of web browsing, conversing and collaborating (email, chat, social media) could now be segregated out to mobile devices. And needles to say these are the target users for mobile campaigns and not exactly office workers and coders who use desktops and laptops. This population is growing at an alarming pace and hence mobile ads as well!

#2 No more voice & data centric segregation: A few years back, there was a clear segregation in the mobile device market whereby voice centric mobile devices (basic mobile phones) and data centric devices (PDAs, early generation smart phones) entirely distinct roles. However, now both have kind of merged into powerful smart phones that text or SMS based campaigns are moving towards more intuitive web text ads, rich media ads, interstitial page ads etc. This trend has definitely boosted the mobile ad reach and effectiveness.

#3 Less ad blindness: Due to the low form factor and the considerably larger percentage area that the ad occupies, it is hardly possible for a mobile ad to go unnoticed. Also, usually there will be only one mobile ad per page and that will be always (or mostly) a horizontal full width ad that help promote readability. In other words, you don’t have the problem that some skyscraper or tower ads face, on typical mobile ads and hence that make them more effective. And unlike the case of laptops and desktops, the mobile devices almost always have the audio enabled so as to get audio-visual ads more attention.

#4 More ad clicks: For the same reason mentioned above, it’s possible to get a higher click through rate for mobile ads. Modern access mechanisms such as touch screens as against mouse or keyboard further increase the probability of getting ad clicks.

#5 Geo-targeting in the real sense: Fine, you had the possibility of geo-targeting with your online campaigns in the past as well. But with the invent of real geo-location tracking of the mobile devices, the best geo-targeted ads are rolled in to your devices regardless of where you are traveling around the world. Finally, we have the real geo-targeting with mobile campaigns!

#6 Mobile handset/OS vendors & ad networks: As you know, some of the big names in the smart phone technology market (e.g. Google, Microsoft, RIM,…) have their own ad networks and ad platforms. This will certainly lead to more innovation in the mobile advertising market and more unified experience that best suite the respective devices. This trend is likely to continue and we can witness more acquisitions and consolidations in the coming days.

#7 Mobile access to shopping sites on the rise: A survey by Marketing Charts indicate that the number of consumers accessing the shopping sites via mobile devices is on the rise every year. This means that mobile device based ad campaigns could result in more conversions for almost all categories of shopping in the coming years.

#8 More attention to mobile: Human beings are becoming more and more social online and they like to be connected with their social network almost all the time. The time spend on newspapers, books and TV is getting reduced day by day as each individual is hooked on to his mobile device more than anything else. Hence mobile is going to be the channel of choice for any online campaign for the days to come.

Comments

According to a survey conducted by eMarketer.com, a business information service, 90% of mobile searches go for local information. Just imagine the conversions and sales you’ll get if you got a search engine friendly website, local buyers can easily spot you and get products or services from you. You just have to make sure that you’re ready to give them the quality and convenience they expect so that repeat business would always be at your door.

Would you be willing to show non-intrusive ads on your phone based upon your preferences if the your mobile operator allowed you to reduce your phone bill in return of showing an ad every time? I would.

About this Blog & Blogger

I am Ajith Edassery, an Internet Marketer from Bangalore. I quit my High-paid job in the Software Industry to pursue Blogging, Internet Marketing and other Home-based money making opportunities. Read more...